So, here we are, the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Plc finally responds to the decision by the Court that the National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) orders it (NBC) to put a written warning on Fanta and Sprite bottles stating that both soft drinks are poisonous when consumed along with Vitamin C.
There are many troubling dimensions to the matter at hand. But first, we must dispense with some preliminary matters. Though one is not fully privy to the particulars of this case, yet one must wonder why the court is ordering NAFDAC to order NBC to take action, having found favour in the objection raised by the UK authorities. Why can’t the Court simply not order the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Plc, which is a party to the suit, to take action?
Even when one might understand why a window of 90 days is given to the company to put “a written warning that the content of the said bottles of Fanta and Sprite soft drinks cannot be taken with Vitamin C as same becomes poisonous if taken with Vitamin C”, one still wonders why the court did not deem it necessary to also order for a recall of the bottles already in the market to make them judgement-compliant.
If a matter this sensitive has been caught up in the slow-grinding wheel of the court system since 2008, are we saying that even when judgement is finally delivered in 2017, it still did not call for an emergency action and order for the company to take immediate steps to prevent further risk of a possibly poisonous combination for Nigerians?
Also, still without the benefit of having read the judgement in full, it is curious to find out from the excerpts available that even though the court “is in absolute agreement with the learned counsel for the claimants that soft drinks manufactured by Nigeria bottling company ought to be fit for human consumption irrespective of colour or creed…(and) that the knowledge of the Nigeria Bottling Company that the products were to be exported is immaterial to its being fit for human consumption,” there is no record of sanction on the company or order for it to pay damages to either the claimant or those who might have been victims of what it considers gross irresponsibility on the part of NAFDAC “in its regulatory duties to the consumers of Fanta and Sprite manufactured by Nigeria Bottling Company.”
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